The other day, I logged into LinkedIn while sitting with a client and we saw an article title that read along the lines: Why Facebook was a Waste of Time. Of course, they had asked right away if this was true? Here was my answer…

No, for a lot of my clients it is where they have the highest amount of success. Others may find more success on Twitter, while others succeed on Pinterest. You know why? Blanket statements by social media marketing strategists create great headlines, but actually have nothing to do with a client’s experience on their social media platform. Here’s my tip for today: Don’t listen to blanket cookie cutter answers as to what works best for your social media. Below are the top 5 reasons why you should say no to cookie cutter social media:

1. Don’t join the hype!Don’t join the next best social media channel because someone mentioned it to you once. Don’t leave a social media network either, because you read an article in yesterday’s news. For every article that says “TWITTER IS DEAD” two more will be published to say Twitter is the best thing since sliced bread. Rather, find out from your current customers, friends, family, and colleagues the networks they are on.

2. Respect each network you are on.If you are on Twitter and you see the fb.me link in a tweet, you know that user has posts auto set-up to share from FB to Twitter. However, you will never know if that Facebook user actually logs into Twitter to talk to their followers. With all the different social media dashboards out there, find one that works for you to share appropriately on each social media platform.

3. Make the RSS feed stop!This goes along with not blasting out one post to every network. Pleasedon’t just RSS feed every new blog post to any of your social media sites. Nothing is worse than going to a social media business page and just seeing link after link post with no appropriate commentary to go with each post. It is the equivalent of white noise, no one sees it or pays attention to it. In the end, you haven’t given them a custom reason too.

4. Buying followers leads you to nothing!I can’t stress this enough! I know you are working with a great agency and they just bought fans and followers from an online company that raised your numbers big time. You are so busy congratulating yourself for being so smart that you don’t realize what you have walked into. You’ve fallen victim to what I call a Social Media Hot Mess! Here are some truths about buying followers and fans: You just bought a whole bunch of fake accounts that will not engage with your page. You also just flagged your account for every member of #TeamFollowback to buy a 1,000 followers. Please note that buying these followers expire 6 months to one year because these social networks catch on and delete these false accounts. Sites like Twitter go in and delete thousands of accounts at a time on a regular basis because they’re fake. You’re investing in Flash Fans and Followers.

5. Half measures will avail us something.
If you are doing any of the things I mentioned above, would you believe it’s getting your name out there? It might be. Yet, if a customer was standing in front of you, debating to use your company, would you only half-way serve them and say that’s good enough? Or would you roll out the red carpet to impress them so they would know you care about their brand, want their business, AND recommend your services to all your friends?